Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Triggers in Everyday Life




We know that most of you are outside barbequing, fishing, lounging, swimming, or any other fun outdoor family activity.  But, it is also important to pay tribute to the reason we celebrate July 4th.  Our company, iLantern, is actually named after Paul Revere’s famous ride. You remember from your history books: “One, if by land, two, if by sea”.  Depending on how many lanterns were in the North Church window was the indicating trigger/signal to let everyone know which way the British were coming. 

That was a monumental trigger in American history, but today we have triggers that happen all the time in our every day lives.

At iLantern, we are always looking for triggers.  If you aren’t familiar with the term triggers, here is our definition:

1. A condition or event/s that have occurred in any given company that precipitate a sales and marketing opportunity to deliver the right message to customers and leads at the right time.

You ask: what does this have to do with everyday life?  Triggers are everywhere.  Once you start noticing why you make the decisions you do, when you are barbequing, fishing, at the grocery store, playing tennis, golfing, or walking your dog, you will see that most of your decisions are based on event data that has occurred.

Here are some examples:

1.     Fishing – Did you look to make sure the tide is right and the fish are actively feeding?
2.     Barbequing – Have the coals reached that perfect grey color, so you know your burgers will get the perfect sear.
3.     Tennis – Did you read your opponent’s body language to see that they are going down the line or cross-court and move accordingly.
4.     Golfing – Did you check for rolled greens? How fast and how far is your ball going to go?
5.     Grocery Shopping – Did you find the specials that are on sale this week, take an inventory and plan your dinners?

Back at work, you are constantly looking for event triggers to let you know if your leads and clients are in a position to buy or, equally important, not to buy.  With Big data as all the rage and marketing automation to help measure behavior and create actions, triggers help to make those actions that much more timely and that much more relevant.  It is the difference between preemptively reading the signs (the tide is perfect and the fish are feeding) or responding after someone has told you that the tide is perfect and the fish are feeding.

The value of triggers to help craft our decision making process is invaluable in both our business and our every day lives.

Go make a mental note to seek out triggers and you will begin to see them everywhere.  Let us know what you discover.

Visit us at: www.ilantern.com
Follow us on Twitter 
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Linkedin

No comments:

Post a Comment